The fire was welcoming to the worn out knights. It had been a long hunt, and they seemed to be energized by the idea of one of Merlin's impressive meals.

Unfortunately Merlin was not as excited. For he had to make enough to feed the abounding group of knights. While he made soup, the constant insults from Arthur, the stream of cheeky jokes from gwaine, and the many other lively knights were not helping Merlin's mood either.

When the meal was made Merlin was exhausted. He had set up all of the camp, he was nearly in his bed roll when Gwaine and Percival urged him to come back to help entertain themselves.

Amusing themselves, along with the knights around them they were speaking of how idiotic Merlin was, and mentioning all the times they remember him being odd, dramatic, or stubborn. The majority of the stories made the warlock even more agitated then he was.

This week Merlin had killed two assassins, he'd stopped Morgana's plans multiple times while Arthur had thought he was at the tavern thanks to Gaius. Not surprisingly Arthur gave Merlin even more chores to finish because of his 'laziness'. Remembering how busy he had been Merlin scolds himself for not eating more, he'd only had four meals this week. Five if you included the soup he just had, but it was just a measly bowl of soup only half full, and the bowl was tiny as it was. Although this already added up to him being extremely tired, but the little he slept due to nightmares or dangerous assassins didn't help either.

Now the knights were boasting about kills.
"I've killed three hares with one arrow!" One nearly shouted of pride.

"I've killed a magnificent moose the size of a small grain bin" boasted one of the younger knights.

This went on until Arthur decided to gloat about the Dragon, "Any of you ever killed a dragon before?" He paused. "I have. I gave it a mortal blow and....." He kept on spinning this tale and explaining for the curious knights, and of course he ended up over exaggerating about how agile he'd been. This caused Merlin to snort. Luckily only Gwaine noticed, who gave him a strange look, but returned to listening to Arthur's fake story in a moment.

" and this" he lifted his chain mail to show a large scar. "I got from the Dragon, Merlin witnessed the entire thing." The knights all stared at Merlin who had zoned out looking at the fire.

"Merlin?" No reaction.
"Merlin you idiot, what are you looking at?"
"MERLIN!" Arthur shouted.

He just looked up with a worn out look and groaned in response.

Arthur insulted Merlin, and the conversation carried on. For a while Merlin zoned out again, until he started tuning in and realized they were now boasting about who had the worst scars.

"This one I got from a nearly mortal arrow wound,"
"I received this from a Griffin," this continued for another while.

Sneakily Merlin had tried to escape to his bed roll to both avoid conversation and get much needed rest, but Leon noticed and pulled him back. "C'mon Merlin stay a bit!" He urged.

Arthur decided to rejoin the conversation at this point "How about you Merlin? Show us your worst scar."

Merlin suddenly looked like a deer about to flee, and shook his head repeatedly. He didn't trust his voice due to the fear of it betraying him.

"C'mon Merlin it can't be THAT bad, the worst scar you probably have is from falling down the stairs or hitting a door knob!"
Arthur's words seemed to amuse the knights, but they simply added anger to his fear.

"I don't have any scars" he attempted to lie from some of the courage he'd managed to create for himself.
The courage, and anger turned to being horrified when the knights had suddenly all stood up and were heading towards Merlin with smirks on their faces.

They obviously didn't believe his lie.

He stumbled back attempting to get away but when he turned to run, he found a large log that seemed to have no sympathy for distressed warlocks, and he tripped over it landing on his face.

The knights laughed and Percival lightly picked him up and brought him back to the fire. Once again Merlin tried to escape, but with Percival's strong arms holding him down, he realized it was futile and resorted to pleading.

"Please Don..." He didn't even get to finish before his shirt was lifted off.

The laughing and the smirks we're gone in seconds, they were replaced by gasps. There was no more struggling, only a defeated look left on Merlin's face.

They stayed there, simply staring for a few minutes.

"How did you get so many?" Arthur asked with a possessive tone, then with a sadder tone, "why didn't you tell me?"

Merlin started "I didn't tell you because it didn't matter, and..."

"It didn't matter?" Arthur interrupted "It didn't MATTER?" He seemed upset, but Merlin couldn't figure out why, it was his body, so why would it bother Arthur so?

They sat in silence for a while.
"How did you get that?" Arthur asked more gently, but he still seemed upset. He had pointed at the Serket sting on Merlin's back. "And how did you survive?"

"Morgana led me to a trap," he started. "She led me straight to morguase, and they caught me and tied me up... They left me there to the serkets." He decided he would change certain things in the stories he'd tell. "a druid saved me, and helped me get back to Camelot to warn you of her plans."

More silence.

This time Gwaine asked, "what about the whip scars?"

"I got them back in Ealdor from bullies along with these ones." He pointed to multiple scars all over his body.

Elyan piped in, " but some of them are fresher than that. As if you got them in camalot... How did you get those?"

Merlin sighed, " Arthur remember when you lent me to those knights?" Arthur nodded. "I guess they weren't as noble as you thought."

Arthur looked like he was about to cry.

"What about the large burn on your chest?" Percival asked.

" Umm, I might have sorta tried to switch my life for Arthur's when he was hit by a poisonous beast... I went to Nimueh to get the cup of life and switch my life for his. Except it backfired and poisoned my mother. So before I got the chance to switch it back Gaius stepped in and switched his life for my mother's..." Some knights seemed to be following so far, but some seemed confused. "Then I went to go switch my life for Gaius' and Nimueh refused, she threw a fire ball at me, and I managed to kill her with lots of luck, and that switched her life with Gaius'. Make sense?"

Most nodded.

"Wait so you saved my life?" Arthur finally caught on.

Merlin lightly laughed. "I've saved your oblivious, rude arse more times than you can count,"

This shocked Arthur and the knights into more silence.

Gwaine now saw just how exhausted Merlin really was and retrieved his shirt for him.

"One last question," Gwaine started, "How do you... Merlin, have abs?"
Merlin started laughing hysterically as Gwaine handed his shirt back.

"Chores from Arthur. Like lugging around you're armour all the time, or mucking out the stalls." Merlin finally answered

Gwaine suggested they get some sleep. Everyone agreed, and Merlin was the first to his bed roll.

The conversation may have ended tonight, but Arthur had decided that he would question him further about all his scars. Arthur still couldn't believe his friend had that many scars! They were all going to watch Merlin more, it was obvious that he was good at keeping secrets now. The knights all suddenly felt more protective of Merlin. On the other hand Arthur Was filled with rage at himself for not helping his friend more! How had he not noticed his friend acting different all those times? Why hadn't he asked what was wrong all those times? But the main question was why doesn't he trust me?

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This is one of my first stories, so please comment any recommendations, or advice.

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